Etowah Mounds

Etowah Mounds
Etowah Mounds in the Georgia State Parks systems.

Thursday, June 5, 2014

Books


I do like to mention books that I like here, on the blog.  If I read one that I don't care about, I just won't bring it up at all.

I read one recently though that I love and that I don't care for at the same time.  Let me explain.

The book is about one of my favorite travel spots.  It is a town that I have mentioned here many times, and there are many books written about it.

The book itself looked very interesting, and it was a bit obscure too.

The book is actually very well researched.  There is an intro by a well known person associated with the topic, and the author scored MANY fascinating interviews.  In general, the book is amazing.

My problem is that the book suffers from TERRIBLE editing.  I mean it is bad (misspellings, large sections duplicated, sentences missing verbs, their/there confusion etc).

I am more than OK with a few errors in books.  I love the print on demand and DIY type books that are readily available these days, and I can look past a few issues here and there.  I understand.  I have read and reviewed many rare self published books here and on my baseball blog that have many errors.....  and these are among the most prized and loved books in my collection.  Their amateur feel is part of their charm.

AND, I catch errors here, on my blog all the time.  I try to correct them when I see them, but again, this is a VERY amateur blog.  I don't have an editor.  Lets be honest...  I don't have that many readers!

BUT this book has errors everywhere; I have noticed a massive mistake very literally on every single page.  I sincerely wish that the author had sent me a copy before it went to print.  It is embarrassing.

In fact, it looks like the author disappeared after the book came out.  He has a website mentioned in the book, and it no longer exists.  I have googled him and can't find any mention of him over the last several years.

The author thanks his editor in the front of the book, but I am not sure if anyone really looked over it.

Obviously I won't mention the book's title here, but I just don't know how to feel about it.  A lot of work went in to the book and I admire and appreciate that- but I can't endorse it here because of the problems.

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